CHARLOTTE, N.C. (AP) - A recent Republican leader in the North Carolina House says she has an advanced form of ovarian cancer.

Former Rep. Ruth Samuelson confirmed the new diagnosis to The Charlotte Observer (http://bit.ly/1UF0FTh ). That happened after a current House member announced on the House floor Wednesday that Samuelson had stage-four cancer.

The 56-year-old Samuelson is a former Mecklenburg County commissioner elected to the House in 2006. She rose through the ranks to become the House Republican Conference Leader but declined to run for re-election in 2014.

Samuelson will start chemotherapy next week and says “God’s got me in his hands, regardless of how this turns out.”

Samuelson was known in the legislature for passing laws regulating abortion and mandating voter ID. Environmental groups considered her an ally.